Berkowitz is credited with running the team that won convictions in the 2006 trials of Enron executives Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling.

Getting the last word during closing arguments in the combined trial, Berkowitz cited emails and phone transcripts to argue there was irrefutable evidence the honchos broke the law. He told jurors the men shouldn’t be allowed to “buy their way out of this.”

When the jury returned convictions a few days later, Berkowitz stood outside the courthouse and said, “No matter how rich and powerful you are, you have to play by the rules.”

Riding the high of his Enron success, Berkowitz went into private practice and joined the white-shoe firm Latham & Watkins, where he specializes in white-collar litigation and advises Fortune 500 companies.

The complaint made public last week included damaging statements allegedly made by Loughlin and Giannulli in emails and recorded phone calls.

The spouses were arrested last week and charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. They were released after posting separate $1 million bonds secured with the deed to their gated Los Angeles estate.

“I think the parents are going to end up with probation and a significant amount of community service,” Lou Shapiro, a defense lawyer who regularly represents federal defendants, told the Daily News on Monday.

He said under federal sentencing guidelines, judges must consider not just a conviction but each defendant’s “entire life” and accomplishments.

“Most of these people are very accomplished individuals who’ve made significant contributions to society,” he said.

“What’s been striking me about this case all along is that we have only portions of the tapes. We don’t have all the tapes. It scares me what we don’t know,” Laurie L. Levenson, a former federal prosecutor and a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, told The News.

“We can anticipate the defense lawyers are going to say things were taken out of context. I think they’re going to say, ‘My client really didn’t know everything. You’re not sharing the times when my client asked if this was OK, and they were told, yes, it’s been vetted,’” she said.

Levenson also cautioned that many aspects of the government’s case appear to rely heavily on the cooperation of the scheme’s top ringleader, William (Rick) Singer, the founder of the Edge College & Career Network.